Jim Gazzolo, Special to the American Press

Justin Hill will return to the dugout as McNeese State looks to bounce back from a rough weekend in Ruston.

The Cowboys were swept by Louisiana Tech while their head coach sat through his COVID-19 quarantine. Hill tested positive for the virus and missed the last four games, but no other member of the program was forced out.

“The good thing is nobody else tested positive or was gone for contract tracing,” Hill said. “I’m going to be happy to be back.”

Hill said he suffered mild symptoms and was feeling better and ready to go.

As for his team, the Cowboys (5-6) start Southland Conference play tonight by hosting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-8), which has lost its last seven games. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

The SLC will use a different series format this year. Teams will play four games a weekend instead of three. There will also be a scheduled doubleheader each Saturday with the first game scheduled for seven innings. If that game goes more innings, the second game will be shortened to seven innings.

“There is no formula for this,” Hill said. “We will be making it up as we go along. It is going to be different with so many new factors, it will be hard to predict.”

As for how many wins it will take to claim the title, Hill said that’s going to be a “moving target.”

One thing is for sure: pitching will be needed to the extra outs.

“You are going to have to use more pitchers and more players,” Hill said. “A lot of guys will be playing in critical moments.”

However, not this weekend. Thursday afternoon the series was cut to three nine-inning games with Saturday’s starting at 2 p.m. and Sunday’s at 1 p.m. The reason was COVID-19 protocols with Corpus, which doesn’t have enough healthy players for a four-game series under SLC rules.

With limited weekday games on the schedule, players will be getting their baptisms under fire.

“You have a plan until the game starts,” Hill said. “You will have to stretch some pitchers out. Sundays will be interesting. You’ve got to embrace the ugly.

“You can’t save a guy for the next day, and that seven-inning game is just a sprint.”

Will Dion will get the start in the opener for the Cowboys, who are 5-0 at home. The sophomore lefty from Sulphur is 1-2 with an ERA of 3.79 with 29 strikeouts in 19 innings. Ty Abraham (1-0) will follow in one of Saturday’s games with a 1.35 ERA with Christian Vega (0-1) getting the other start.

“I am comfortable with our starters right now to let them leverage the games,” Hill said.

Offensively, Clayton Rasbeary and Tré Obregon are both hitting over .400. Rasbeary is at .467 with nine RBIs and has scored 10 runs. Obregon is at .415 with seven runs batted in.

The Islanders are led by Luke Marbach who is hitting at a .385 clip. Thomas Harden (1-1, 2.41) and Leo Perez (1-1, 3.21) are two likely starters for Corpus.McNeese baseball